XBL down for maintenance on Oct. 17th

Major Nelson sends word that the Xbox Live network will soon disappear into a nebulous offline abyss for some maintenance. Currently scheduled for Tuesday, 17 October and expected to last for 24 hours, attempts by your Xbox 360 to connect to Live will be met with unnerving digital silence. Mark the date on your calendars and be sure to reschedule your planned sessions of disconnecting early, screaming into your headset and informing other players of their sexual orientation.

The official Xbox website will also be taken down and worked upon in order to accomodate "some secret cool stuff." None of which, as the site insists, includes a dashboard update. Incidentally, 17 October is also the release date for Splinter Cell: Double Agent.